Terminator: The Zeta Chronicles
by JasonVUK
Summary: Great soldiers are not born they are forged in the fires of war and the greatest start from nothing. These are the Chronicles of Zeta. A spin off of "Bond of Steel and Bone" set during the previous future. OC-Centric story. Rated M for cursing, violence and death.
1. Chapter 1

Here is a little spin off story set during the previous timelines future of _Bond of Steel and Bone,_ where Luna, A.T and Tony are from. The character in question will become important in the future of the series, but not quite yet, not quite yet. Please tell me what you think.

* * *

Terminator:

The Zeta Chronicles

Chapter 1

Birth

* * *

On August 19th 2011, mankind sealed it's own fate when they activated their latest creation the Skynet defence system. Skynet: created by the joint efforts of several companies all spear headed by the Kaliba corporation, it was designed to be America's most powerful weapon and their guardian.

August 21st 2011, Skynet decided mankind's fate; global termination. Skynet launched all of America's nukes around the world, the retaliation was near instantaneous, America's enemies counter-attacked. Over three billion human lives ended with a few hours, and the survivors faced a new threat; the war against the machines.

Months after the bombs, Skynet met with little resistance as its units encountered small group of humans, the healthy were taken, the old, the weak the injured were terminated.

Then came the Resistance cells. At first nothing but a mere nuisance, but then they grew stronger and more numerous. Skynet's machines could not effectively combat the Resistance and so newer units were created, firstly an upgraded model of the original T-1 battle field robot, now renamed the T-100, even with additional armour the machines fell, so came the similarly design T-200, T-300. It didn't take long for Skynet to realise its mistake, the machines, while powerful couldn't manoeuvre like the humans, small spaces, and the lack of mobility became a machines weakness, attacks from behind became a vulnerability. Skynet's only success afterwards came from deploying its much needed T-70s; a pre-war autonomous infantry robot; a machine that had a humanoid design unlike the series 100 to 300.

Perhaps that was where success lay.

The series 400 was more of an experiment than anything. To test humans against a more humanoid foe. The results were … noteworthy.

Finally it had come to pass. After research and planning stripping away weakness and reinforcing its strength. Skynet created it latest and deadliest machine, a machine that would turn to tide of war back in its favour, on June 18th 2015 Skynet unleashed its most powerful infantry unit, the T-500.

* * *

… _ **  
CPU BOOTING …  
CALIBRATING SYSTEMS …  
DATE: 09/25/2016 … 09:35 …  
DOWNLOADING MISSION DIRECTIVES FROM SKYNET CENTRAL HUB …  
PRIMARY DIRECTIVE: TERMINATE JOHN CONNOR  
SECONDARY DIRECTIVE: TERMINATE ALL HUMAN RESISTANCE  
TERTIARY DIRECTIVE: TERMINATE HOSTILE MACHINES  
CPU ONLINE  
DIAGNOSTIC COMMENCING …  
ENDOSKELETON 100% FUNCTIONALITY  
CPU 100% FUNCTIONALITY  
CYBERDYNE SYSTEMS SERIES 500 UNIT 771624-986  
ALL SYSTEMS ONLINE … **_

Twin red orbs illuminated brightly signalling life to the death machine, the hydraulic arms around its being strapped a large steel container filled with ammunition to its back, then positioned a large 5.56 NATO machinegun in its right hand.

The series 500 had been created just over year previous. Standing at six-foot-seven inches tall with a titanium combat chassis, they were an imposing sight. Their upgraded CPU over the 400 gave them improved accuracy, superior intelligence, improved battlefield coordination, faster reaction times, greatly improved hydraulic to increase speed, and manoeuvrability their optical sensors were the most advanced for Skynet's infantry units even superior to the pre-war T-70 that Skynet valued over other previous infantry units and a durable titanium combat chassis over the 400's lacklustre steel chassis. The series 500 was among Skynet's greatest achievements, until the introduction of the series 600 three months ago. The newer units were phasing out the 500s firstly as guards, then security personnel at Skynet camps, only a tiny number had been put out into combat.

Now 500s were simply churned out due to their simpler designs, much like the 400s as they were cheap and easy to create.

Beside units 771624-986 were over several other machines exactly the same as itself. The machines stomped out of the Skynet factory bypassing series 400 and 100 guards then into the world of the Post Apocalypse Los Angeles.

 _ **OBJECTIVES RECEIVED …  
MOVE TO SECTOR 93X41  
TERMINATE ALL HOSTILES …  
CAPTURE APPLICABLE CANDIDATES**_

As one the series 500s stomped their way through the wreckage of Los Angeles towards their destined location. In the past the Series 500 had been able to push back the growing human resistance which had been gaining ground.

Sector 93x41 has been reached, it was quiet. The series 500s waited for new commands.

 _ **OBJECTIVE ACCOMPLISHED …  
MOVE TO SECTOR 93X41 … COMPLETE …  
… RECEIVING OBJECTIVES …  
BREAK FORMATION …  
RECON SECTOR 93X41 …  
TERMINATE ALL HOSTILES  
CAPTURE APPLICABLE CANDIDATES  
**_

The series 500s were still however less intelligent than the newer more powerful T-600s. The machines needed constant mission updates before they would do anything, unless something triggered a secondary mission or tertiary mission.

The group of 500s stomped the area. Unit 771624-986 and two other units broke away from the group and stomped to one of the ruined buildings, a blackened skyscraper that was, if only just, standing whole, a few walls had collapsed to the floor but the structure was still solid.

Unit 986 scanned the interior of the building seeing nothing, he stomped along the wall till it reached an opening where the wall had collapsed inwards, as it and the other units stepped inside their heavy titanium feet crunched against brittle concrete and cement.

The area inside was large, the three 500 series took a moment devising the best strategy, such a plan would've been made instantly by later units however eighteen seconds passed before they concluded; split-up. The units separated to cover more ground.

Unit 986 stopped its search, something had got its attention, it couldn't _see_ anything.

 _ **AUDIO FEEDBACK …ENHANCE … ENHANCE  
**_ **"Sssshhhh it might hear us."  
** _ **LIFEFORMS DETECTED … REQUESTING BACK-UP … REGROUP.  
LOCATING … AUDIO DETECTED SOUTH-SOUTH EAST … SEARCHING.**_

The series 500 turned, facing large slab of concrete near the end of the room built into the ceiling and the floor, construction unknown. It marched towards the structure, its sensors indicated a seven-foot-tall hole in the structure blocked off by a piece of fallen debris. The debris wasn't from anywhere around having likely been placed there by someone. Not that the 500 had known that. The machine stopped just in front of the structure when it heard a yelp before being quickly muted. It reached up with its free hand and pulled the debris out of its path before scanning the interior.

The structure was once a stair-well that went to higher and lower floors, the stairs leading up had partially collapsed making it difficult to climb higher and sealing the way down.

Its optics landed on a group of humans huddled in the corner, two small females one being bigger and likely older than another, beside them was an adult, with similar facial and bone structure, likely the mother.

 _ **HUMANS LOCATED …  
SCANNING …  
NO VISIBLE WEAPONS DETECTED …  
TERMINATE?  
NEGATIVE …  
TERTIARY OBJECTIVE: CAPTURE APPLICABLE CANDIDATES …  
REQUESTING TRANSPORT UNIT …  
NO TRANSPORT UNIT IN AREA …  
TERTIARY OBJECTIVE: COMPROMISED …  
TERMINATE?  
AFFIRMATIVE.**_

986 raised its machinegun before its sensors indicated damage coming from above. Adjusting its optics it saw a male human with a pistol in hand firing at the Machine, the 9mm rounds ricocheted off the 500s titanium structure.

 _ **HOSTILE DETECTED …  
TERMINATE…**_

The machine raised its weapon, the man rushed out of the way before it fired. 986 scanned the remnants of the staircase, even with the added weight of the munitions canister on its back and the weapon in hand it could reach the stairs and pull itself up to pursue the hostile, its CPU didn't take the condition of the stairs into consideration and marched to the remains of the upper floor stairs. It jumped and grabbing hold of the stairs with its free hand not taking note as the concrete began to weak before lifting the other for additional support before pulling itself up higher.

The male human returned wielding a fire axe and brought the pick-shaped point down onto the 500s head 986's "chin" hit the weakened concrete further causing it to crack yet inflicted no damage to its cranium, the human dropped the axe cursing loudly as his hands shook. 986 directed its weapon towards him, putting all the extra weight onto its other hand, the crack in the stairs finally gave way causing the machine to fall onto its back.

"RUN!" the man yelled, the mother grabbed her two girls and ran out of the stairwell, not ten feet out the humans were gunned down by the other two series 500s who'd come as back-up. The male human screamed out in horror and anguish as he watched the female slump to the ground.

986 set its optic on the male and raised its weapon then fired. The male human was terminated.

 _ **HUMAN ELEMENTS TERMINATED  
CONTINUE SEARCH?  
AFFIRMATIVE.**_

986 rose to its feet, and scanned the staircase once more. The infantry unit successfully climbed up and gazed around the immediate area. The machine felt the others units rise up behind it, the three machines began their search for any more hostile forces.

986, 985 and 984 separated, scanning the area for any sign of life.

 _ **UNIT 771624-985  
SEARCHING …  
SCANNING …  
NEGATIVE  
0 HOSTILES DETECTED  
REQUESTING UPDATE  
**_

 _ **UNIT 771624-984  
PERIMETER SEARCH COMPLETE …  
NEGATIVE …  
0 HOSTILES DETECTED …**_

 ** _UNIT 771624-986_**  
 ** _SCANNING …_**  
 ** _NEGATIVE_**  
 ** _0 HOSTILES DETECTED …_**  
 ** _REGROUP_**  
 ** _CONTINUE SEARCH_**

The three machines regrouped at the stairway, scanning the upper set of stairs, they were damaged but not as badly so as the previous set, scanning it momentarily the three walked up to the cracked stairs and leapt over the short gap to next floor.

 _ **SKYNET COMMAND TRANSMISSION  
UNITS 771624: 984, 985, 986  
CONTINUE SEARCH  
UNITS 771624: 980, 981, 982, 983, 987, 988, 989, 990  
PROCEED TO SECTOR 93X43  
HOSTILES LOCATED – TERMINATE**_

The series 500s on the ground broke off their search and marched onwards. Unit 986 paused from its search for just a moment then glancing down out of the shattered window to the rest of its unit watching them march away. The machine righted its head then continued its search.

* * *

While the three machines continued their search in the desolate skyscraper, the rest of the units marched in unison, their audio systems could detect the faint sound of gunfire, growing ever louder as they drew nearer.

"We got metal incoming!" a female voice yelled.

 _ **HOSTILES DETECTED …  
LOCATE AND TERMINATE …  
HOSTILES LOCATED …  
TERMINATE…**_

The T-500s had located the battlefield; an allied squad of T-400s had come under fire from an unknown hostile group; whether it was resistance soldiers or otherwise could not be confirmed. The enemy forces were using the ruined buildings around them as cover.

The T-500s units broke off as the older 400 units were easily outgunned, several gunshots impacted against a few 500 units titanium torso armour leaving little more than a scratch, they entered the occupied buildings …

"ROBOTS!" one of the humans called out, a young woman with short blonde hair, holding an AR-15 rifle, she raised the rifle and fired, .223 calibre bullets ricocheted off the Terminators bodies.

Several more humans behind her raised their own rifles, more AR-15 variants and fired. A small barrage of semi-automatic fire pounded into the three T-500s.

The T-500s raised their own 5.56 NATO weapons and fired fully-automatic into the group; mowing them down. Some humans took cover behind concrete or make-shift barricades, some took to running.

 _ **HOSTILES TERMINATED …  
TERMINATE ALL HOSTILES  
SEARCH & DESTROY …  
CAPTURE APPLICABLE CANDIDATES …**_

The T-500s spread out, following the sound of humans yelling, the sound of gunfire.

Unit 990, 980 and 983 followed a bald human as he ascended the stairs, the human had run from the first floor after the first onslaught of munitions had dropped his allies.

"THEY'RE RIGHT BEHIND ME!" the man cried in panic almost tripping before running out of their line of sight as he stepped out of the stairwell.

The 500s weren't prepared, their systems too slow as three humans stepped into their line of sight wielding shotguns, and began unloading shell after shell into the machines, the unrelenting buckshot pounding heavily against their titanium frames repeatedly, unit 983 fell back into the other two units causing a domino affect as the three machines fell down the stairs.

"We've got to go!" an unseen male voice cried out.

Unit 980 raised its machinegun towards the shotgunners are fired striking down one of the assailants, and injuring another as a few rounds went into his shoulder and arm, the third managed to escape.

Unit 983 clambered back to its feet followed by the other two machines as they once more climbed the stairs, faster this time as their enemy tried to escape.

As the Terminators stepped up to the stairwell doorway, their sensors picked up a blood splatter left by the human who'd been injured, they followed its trail.

Unit 983 heard gunfire to its right, it turned with weapon at the ready but paused from firing upon seeing the rest of its squad, minus 984, 985 and 986, firing upon hostiles in the adjacent building.

It turned back and continued the search.

* * *

In the previous skyscraper the three lone 500s continued to ascend higher and higher into the building, their systems having picked up an unknown wailing.

They found themselves on the thirteenth floor, when the wailing seemed much closer. Unlike previous floors this one seemed to have something close to furnishings, a few tables and some chairs, likely taken from the previous floors, not that the thought crossed the 500 units' CPUs.

The machines heard a dull thud above them as something heavy hit the floor drawing their attention, they looked to one another as they calculated their next course of action. It was decided units 986 would investigate the noise. The machine turned and headed back to the stairwell, as it stepped inside the unit's optics landed on a young human in raggedy clothing.

"Oh shit." The young human, a boy, gasped and stared at the machine in horror.

 _ **NON-HOSTILE HUMAN LOCATED  
TERMINATE?  
NEGATIVE …  
TERTIARY OBJECTIVE: CAPTURE APPLICABLE CANDIDATES  
REQUESTING TRANSPORT UNITS …  
TRANSPORT AERIAL IN AREA … RELOCATING TO CURRENT POSITION  
CAPTURE TARGET  
VOCAL SYSTEMS ONLINE**_

"Surrender or be terminated." Came the cold emotionless voice from the machine as it pointed its weapon at the human.

The young human didn't move, just stared at the machine, while panting heavily in fear.

986 waited patiently, if the human did not move, it would suffice as surrendering. Suddenly the human dropped to his knees and cowered, covering his head with his hands.

"Don't kill me, please don't kill me!" the boy blubbered as unseen tears fell from his face.

Unit 986 sent a short-range message to the two other machines, requesting a guard for its captive, unit 985 responded returning to the stairwell.

Unit 986 kept its optics and weapon trained on the boy, not noticing the figure creeping down the stairs, not until a powerful slug collided with its head making the machine to stumble back knocking it off balance, a second shot impacted it torso causing it to fall back.

"GET UP HERE NOW!" a woman cried out as she fired again, the shot impacting upon 986's torso keeping it from rising. "COME ON!" she cried again.

986 looked down while on its back and scanned the woman, wielding a pump-shotgun, she was yelling at the boy who merely stayed in place, frozen in terror. The machine rose its weapon and fired towards the woman, the boy visibly flinched, trying to curl up even tighter.

The shots missed the woman but caused her to retreat. She cursed loudly before running up the stairs. 986 got back to its feet as 985 drew near, 986 marched after the hostile while 985 kept guard over the captive.

"You stupid bitch!" came the angry yell of a man, "You and that fucking boy is gunna get us all killed!"

"I had to save my son!" the woman yelled back. 986 hadn't located either human yet but the audio positioning sounded close.

986 stepped out of the stairwell and into the next floor, there were many more items here, tables, chairs, beds, piles of scrap and trash and various civilian grade weapons along with many more humans. It found the woman being held aggressively by a taller, unkempt male.

"Oh shit." The man growled as it noticed the machine's presence.

The hostile woman forced the man's hand from her person and pushed the man harshly towards 986 before taking off running followed by others who began screaming and yelling.

The man's head bounced painfully off 986' chassis, he cried out in pain before the machine grabbed his throat and lifted him into the air then proceeded to crush it in its grasp, killing him, before marching towards the retreating crowd of humans.

"Where do we go?!"

"Its blocking the exit!"

"Get the heavy guns!"

A lone human raised his AR-15 and fired at the series 500, the machine raised its weapon and fired at the gunman killing him with a quick burst before adjusting its sights to another human with a rifle and fired just as the human got off one shot, tearing several holes through the human's torso while the .223 calibre bullet ricocheted uselessly off 986's shoulder.

More gunfire erupted from further down the room, the machine was slowed in its assault as harder hitting 7.62NATO rounds and buckshot crashed against its chassis, some ricocheting off its head, throwing off its optics sensors. 986 raised its weapon then fired, unleashing a torrent of 5.56 rounds at the enemy.

The enemy attack subsided temporarily allowing the 986 to march ahead its weapon still at the ready. One hostile poked out from around a dilapidated pillar and fired at the machine, 986 retaliated with a quick burst, marble from the pillar shattered from gunfire impaling the man's eyes, the man cried out, covering his eyes with one hand. The machine fired again dropping him to the ground, the man cried out in agony as blood poured from his stomach.

The machine adjusted its aim to another hostile, only for a round of buckshot to throw off its aim, several shots going wide.

More gunfire erupted from behind it. The machine turned, weapon at the ready. 984 had come as back-up, firing towards the shotgunner forcing the woman into cover.

The two machines regrouped. Their primitive tracking systems locating their targets and fired in bursts, the combined automatic fire of the two 500s kept the hostiles at bay as drew closer.

Another burst of 5.56 dropped one of the attacked who held their leg with one hand, while trying to cradle the other as it bled over their shirt.

"STOP! STOP!" a man yelled out from in front of them.

The two 500s turned their attentions to him. He was a middle-aged human, his hair beginning to grey, wearing a long dirty coat. In his hand he held a simple AR-15 rifle, semi-automatic civilian variant.

The machines turned their aim to him, pausing only when he threw his rifle to the floor and lifted his hand up in the air, a sign of surrender.

"Everyone throw down your weapons, it's no use!" He called out.

"We can't just give up," the shotgun woman from the stairwell growled out.

"We're not resistance!" the surrendering man called out, "we're not soldiers, not even police." He added in a shaky breath, "if we fight, we die, we can't fight them."

"We can take 'em!" she shot back.

"With what? Pissant rifles and some shotguns!" the surrendering man turned towards them, turning his back to the machines. "Whether we like it or not, we can't win, if we fight we die … and I don't want to die."

"BULLSHIT!" she roared then brought her shotgun to bare, the two 500s gunned her down with a long burst riddling her body with bullets, she fell to the floor dead before she hit the floor; a pool of blood forming under her.

Behind the two machines came the third 985, holding the boy up by the back of the neck and threw him forward.

The boy grimaced, in pain but alive.

 _ **TRANSMISSION RECEIVED …  
AERIAL TRANSPORT UNIT ON APPROACH  
SECURE PRISONERS …  
STAND-BY …**_

All inside the skyscraper could hear the powerful engines of a Skynet aerial machine.

986 stepped forward, activating its vocal systems once more

"Surrender or be terminated."

The transport aerial unit hovered outside the Skyscraper.

"We surrender, we surrender." The man muttered. The other fighters threw down their weapons, their hope destroyed, their will crushed.

Large arms broke through the buildings structure and grabbed two humans at the time. The giant Harvester unit stored in the back of the aerial transport had activated and began depositing the human captives into the transports containment cell, where a dozen humans already resided.

The T-500s received new orders from Skynet, to board the transports, regroup with their unit then terminate or capture the remaining hostile force.

The three machines were picked up by the Harvester and held in its grasp, the transport began moving again flying to sector 93x43 where the rest of the 500s unit were located. The transport hovered between the destroyed buildings, the Harvester out stretched its arms and released the infantry units in its grasp, the three machines, 986 landing on the left building, 984 and 985 landing on the right.

Automatic gunfire erupted from both buildings as the 500s made their way down their respective stairways.

Unit 986 could detect small bursts and single shots of gunfire coming from below it, the sounds would likely cover the sound of its approach. Once again, not that the series 500 realised this fact.

"We've got to get out of here!" came a female voice, panicking.

"How? The machines have blocked off the exists!" a male voice.

"I heard an aerial outside!" a different female voice.

"We're fucked! We're fucked!" a young man's voice.

Unit 986 detected the voices getting louder, the brief sounds of gunfire getting closer, it was then it HUD pinged several ally signatures.

 _ **SIGNAL DETECTED…  
MESSAGE LINK RE-ESTABLISHED – UNIT 771624-986 TO UNIT 771624-983  
HOSTILES DETECTED IN AREA …  
TERTIARY OBJECTIVE: CAPTURE APPLICABLE CANDIDATES  
TRANSPORT-HARVESTER IN AREA  
SUBDUE & CAPTURE**_

 _ **UNIT 771624-983 TO UNIT 771624-986  
NEGATIVE …  
ALL HOSTILES UNITS ARMED  
LOW-MODERATE THREAT  
TERMINATE/CAPTURE UPON SURRENDER **_

Unit 986's optics were suddenly blinded by flesh and hair as a lone human ran into it, 986 reacted accordingly to its programming and mission commands, it grabbed the human by their hair, a young woman, and fired multiple rounds into her torso before dropping her to the ground. 986 detected several more human coming its way, some realising they were boxed in a little too late as 986 pulled the trigger of its weapon and held it down; 5.56NATO rounds were unleashed without pause at seven-hundred round per minute. Once they realised they were boxed in, the survivors rush back down the stairs to find a room to hide. 986 realised the trigger of its weapons and marched after them, human bodies crunching, cracking and squelching under its feet.

The robot fired a few bursts at the retreating enemy, bullets struck walls, the floor. Five humans broke away from the group running into one of the main floors. 986 paused at the doorway. Pursue the humans down the stairs or the others? It sent the question to the Skynet control hub, receiving a reply instantly.

Follow the larger group, box them in, capture or terminate, any stragglers could be dealt with later, a squad of series 400 reinforcements were on the way. The Machine continued to pursue the larger group.

Below the humans screamed in panic, more gunfire, they were surrounded.

Unit 986 spotted Units 983, 990 and 980 from the corner of its peripheral vision as they stepped over several bodies lying dead on the floor. The remaining humans had moved through the doorway, the four 500s converged on their targets; unit 980 taking point.

As the machine stepped inside a shot went off, the 500's head jolted to the right knocking the machine off balance, more gunfire of varying calibres came forth knocking 980 to the ground.

Unit 990 stepped into the line of fire, the concentrated attack forcing the machine backwards, the machine couldn't get a lock on its targets due to the assault, a few stray rounds caught one of the strap connected the machine's ammo pack to its being causing the large steel pack to swing loosely behind it now attached via one strap over its other shoulder, 990 pulled the trigger of its weapon spraying bullets in randomly in front of it. Unit 983 and 986 then followed the other two into the room, some humans had ducked instinctively as bullets came flying towards their general direction, giving the two machines needed time to counter-attack retaliated with fully-automatic fire.

Many humans ducked behind their makeshift cover, some crying out even as they did so as the barrage of munitions penetrated through the cover and their fleshy hides. Those who didn't duck down were torn fell back lifelessly some even dead before they'd hit the floor.

Unit 980 got back to its feet. The four T-500s regrouped and marched in unison towards the humans while firing at their position, soon enough there were no more cries, no more screams, the machines stepped around the desks and tables, their optics landing on the slaughtered fighters; scanning for any survivors. Unit 986 stepped up to a single human, a woman whose legs were trapped under a much larger and heavier male, her left shoulder had been damaged further reducing her effectiveness at trying to remove the man. She looked up to 986 and reached for her gun sidearm, a small Glock styled pistol, she fired at the machine while screaming like an enraged animal. The small 9mm rounds uselessly bounced off the machines body, the woman classed as a low-level threat even with the loaded pistol.

"Surrender or be terminated." 986 spoke out its order.

"FUCK YOU!" The woman roared.

986 could not get angry, nor be offended, the woman's hostile language meant nothing to it.

"Surrender or be terminated." 986 repeated.

The other three machines continued to look for survivors. Skynet informed it the squad of 400s were entering the two buildings, searching for stragglers.

The woman pulled her arm back and threw the pistol at 986. It tilted its head ever so slightly then raised its weapon and pulled the trigger, a small three-round-burst. Target terminated.

* * *

Within the hour, the four T-500s, and the T-400 reinforcements terminated another three hostiles that resisted capture, and subdued six humans in total. A collective total of twelve humans had been terminated. From their state of dress of both groups of humans, their lack of training, their pre-Judgement Day civilian based weaponry, Skynet deduced none of them part of John Connor's resistance nor any form of surviving military. After interrogation performed by Skynet's human assets, the first group were likely civilians whom had made that dilapidated building their home, the others were part of an organised group of bandits, degenerates.

The series 500 squad was left in the battlefield, no repairs, no rearming, they were to patrol the area.

 _ **UNITS UNIT 771624-980 TO 771624-990  
ADVANCED HOSTILE RESISTANCE LOCATED  
PROCEED TO SECTOR 110X31  
TERMINATE ALL HOSTILES**_

The squad of T-500s turned in unison and marched towards their objective.

* * *

So that's the end of the first chapter, I wanted this one to be primarily from a machine's point of view, especially an older unit. Future chapters may have different points of view, but the main point of the whole thing is from a machine's.

Please tell me what you all think. _ **  
**_


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you to everyone who took an interest in the first chapter, apologies if there are any let downs, but I hope you can all still enjoy this story. Starting from this chapter the point of view will change to different factions, not just the T-500 squad. Enjoy.

* * *

Terminator:

The Zeta Chronicles

Chapter 2

Death

* * *

Since the war began there had always been two species fighting for dominance, the Machines and humanity. But these two species were split into different groups, factions each with a different opinion and use for the other. The machine resistance and John Connor's resistance fought for peace, a union of the two races, they'd been allies since before the war began. Skynet … all knew Skynet's mission, to reign supreme over this world and anything that lived in it, and then, in this sector of California anyway, was General Ashdown's army, a pre-Judgement Day general who had all the supplies Connor didn't, the tanks, jets and vehicles Connor didn't. Connor's soldier made do with repurposed and patched together vehicles they'd made from salvageable parts over the years and helicopters that were used from anything to sightseeing to the news.

Skynet considered Ashdown a threat because of his resources, his weapons. But Connor was a threat because of his knowledge, his tactics, with what little he had in comparison to Ashdown, his men fought better by comparison. Ashdown was overconfident, his attacks premature and not as thought-out like Connor's

Much like now.

"We are pinned down!" a dark skinned man cried with panic into his radio.

Behind them the earth exploded upwards picking up dirt and spraying it all around. Automatic gunfire rained down upon their position.

These soldiers, the dozen or so left were General Ashdown's soldiers. The General had received word of a large Skynet patrol of T-400s in the area and sent out soldiers to destroy it. They hunkered down in a defensible location, solid walls on either side and behind and a clear view of the approaching enemy, they had the man power, they had the munitions to take them down, but nothing ever went according to plan. The initial attack had gone well, a few of the series 400s had been destroyed, but the counter attack was fierce. The primitive machines marched ahead firing automatically at the US soldiers, a few of had died in the initial return of gunfire, some injured, the lieutenant took a shot in the leg making him fall to the floor. With use of grenades and rockets, the machines numbers had been reduced further. Those not destroyed had suffered great amounts of damage, a single T-400 with one arm and its legs missing crawled towards the soldiers. But all that work was worthless now, Skynet had sent immediate reinforcements as soon as the 400s came under attack. When two of the soldier had tried to make a run for it they were gunned down by a squad of advancing T-500s, and another squad was advancing from the opposite side. They were able to keep the machine back, but they wouldn't for long, they were surrounded, outnumbered, outgunned and running low on ammunition.

Two more soldiers went down. It was then Sergeant Langstrom grabbed the radio and shouted into it.

"… we need immediate reinforcements! We need evac! We need _anything!_ "He pleaded desperately.

"We have no squads in the area, pop smoke and retreat, if not destroy the radio, we can't let Skynet gets its hands on it." Came the reply over the radio, not General Ashdown himself, but a subordinate.

Sergeant Langstrom turned towards the nearest soldier; Corporal Yates.

"Who has the smokes?" he asked loudly over the sound of gunfire.

"Yells had them!" the corporal shouted back.

Langstrom breath shuddered, Yells was one of the men who'd tried to make a run for it only to be gunned down. Langstrom could see the body from his position, he couldn't make out the smoke grenades, what if Yates was wrong? Either way it was the only solution he had, he had to try and grab it, but he'd likely be dead, his body riddled with bullets as he so much sticks his hand out.

"We need to pop smoke and get the hell out of here!" Langstrom cried.

"I'll grab them!" Yates calls back loudly.

"Alright," Langstrom replies quietly then turns back, grabbing one of the surviving privates, "we need some covering fire on this side, keep the robots busy!" he ordered.

"Sarge, we're barely holding this side!" the private replied and panic-stricken look in his eye.

"We don't we're dead anyway." Langstrom replied.

The private tapped a few of the others on the shoulder after they'd ducked down thumbing towards the Sergeant.

"Give Yates some covering fire!" he ordered before grabbing his M4a1 carbine with an older 203 grenade launcher attachment.

"I'll fire the grenade, then you grab for it, understand?" Langstrom looked to Yates, the corporal nodded.

The small team prepared, another body fell behind them as the 500s found their mark.

Langstrom popped up from behind cover and fired the grenade launcher. The shot went a little too high, the projectile arching over the first T-500 of the squad and exploded in the middle as it hit its mark. Two of the twelve 500s were destroyed upon the blast, a few others were badly damaged, some were merely knocked to the ground from the blast wave.

Yates didn't wait as he moved out from cover and sprinted towards the two dead bodies, the front T-500 was pushing itself back to its knees, Yates grabbed the dead private by his legs and dragged the body back into shelter as his remaining squad gave him covering fire.

"Smokes?" Langstrom asked as Yates turned the body over, gagging when they saw the messy remains of the soldier's head.

One of the privates grabbed the spare AR magazine from Yells' body and slid it into his M4.

"Alright, we've got the smokes, we need an exit!" Langstrom shouted out

Langstrom swallowed deeply and pushed his nerves down, suppressing them best he could, now was not the time to panic, panicking got people killed.

They were surrounded on two sides, their left flank and their right, the area where the T-400s had been, their front, was now left clear but if they waited too long … well, the T-500s were not slowing down, they'd be on them within the minute.

"We'll have to run straight, we've got no other options." Langstrom declared, he grabbed the four smoke grenades strapped to the Yells' body then turned to look at Corporal Yates.

"What about Lieutenant Mallory? He's injured, we can't just leave him here!" Yates pointed out as the lay on his back, clutching at his knee, blood oozing out of the wound.

Langstrom looked to the Lieutenant as he grit his teeth through the pain. Bringing the Lieutenant with them would slow them down, compromise them … but … he couldn't leave him here. He couldn't.

"You're right, we can't …" Langstrom replied, drawing his 9mm Beretta and fired a single round into Mallory's head; killing him. "We couldn't take him with us without slowing us down, we couldn't leave him here to get captured … I had no choice!" Langstrom yelled at Yates, "I'm not taking that risk."

The others looked mortified but said nothing, Yates nodded, he understood despite not liking it.

"Okay, I'll throw two left, you throw two right, on my mark understand?" Langstrom gave the Corporal two of the grenade then shuffled closer to their left flank. "On the count of three, ready?"

The privates had ceased fire, gathering more magazine from their dead allies.

"ONE!" Langstrom and Yates got into position, ready to throw. The machines had ceased fire with no targets in sight.

"TWO!" They grabbed the pins of the grenades.

' _God be with us.'_ He internally prayed.

"THREE!" Both pulled the pins, looked up from over cover and simultaneously threw their grenades at the advancing enemies. The 500s resumed fire upon seeing a target, Yates yelled out as a bullet struck him in the chest, yet missed any vital organs. The grenades landed in front of the machines, the tips releasing a brief spark before thick black smoke started billowing from the canisters.

"We wait till its thick then run, we may only have a second!" Langstrom yelled, one of the privates helped Yates to his knees.

"I'm fine, I'm fine! Before you decide to shoot me too." Yates growled out, glaring at Langstrom.

Langstrom gave Yates a steely glare in return but said nothing. The sergeant risked a peek over their cover, his eyes opening wide. "GO!" he yelled, grabbing his rifle and vaulted over the small wall, the other soldiers didn't wait, moving around their cover and sprinting between the two smoke clouds behind their sergeant.

Langstrom knew they had to get to some better cover and try and move around machines. But Skynet was likely sending more machines to the area.

* * *

The battle wasn't without its observers, higher in the skyscrapers a small but well-armed grouped watched on through a pair of binoculars.

One, a woman in her mid-twenties grabbed hold of an old radio, checking the dial was set to the right frequency.

"Command, this is point-man two-zero, we've got heavy activity in the in sector thirteen-dash-one, do you copy?"

"Point-man two-zero, this is " _biggie-man"_ we read you over." Came a male voice.

Point-man paused for a moment, she was expecting to speak directly to _him._ But nevertheless, it was all the better for her.

"Biggie-man, we're seeing Skynet and _Army_ activity, a squad of soldiers opened fire on the enemy before retreating when reinforcements arrived, several Army casualties, what are our orders?" she asked.

"Point-Man two-zero, your squad weren't equipped for prolonged combat, observe only assist on your call but if things get bad pull back, is there any sign of the aerial?" The male voice replied.

That much was true, her squad were equipped with a few old M16s and M4s and simple 9mils and 45s as sidearms, all loaded with extra penetrating ammunition; not quite armour piercing, but it worked better than standard ammo.

"Understood command, continuing to assist and that's a negative on the aerial, no sightings, two-zero out." She turned off the radio and looked to her five squad mates. That was how the Resistance worked, small light groups capable of doing damage then disappearing into the ruins, "You guys ready?"

She got an affirmative nod from the others, before Squad Two-Zero began moving through the building _Point-Man_ as per her title, taking point.

The team quickly descended two levels of the skyscraper to the third floor before, they repositioned themselves against the wreckage, keeping their eyes on the streets while keeping their profiles low and their rifles shouldered.

They'd found the army soldiers once more, still running from their previous battle. Two-Zero couldn't make contact now, too much distance and the off-chance Skynet forces might spot them, they couldn't risk it, not yet.

The squad moved on again, keeping to the cover the ruins offered as best they could.

* * *

 _ **SKYNET COMMAND TO SECTOR BASED UNITS  
ADVANCED HOSTILE FORCE ESCAPED  
MOVING TO SECTOR 99X12  
UNITS 771624-980 – 771624-990 ON INTERCEPT  
CLOSE IN AND TERMINATE.**_

The squad of T-500s marched tirelessly through the wastes of the Los Angeles to their targeted sector with Unit 986 was taking point with weapon at the ready.

 _ **OBJECTIVE ACCOMPLISHED …  
… RELOCATE TO SECTOR 99X12 … COMPLETE  
RECON SECTOR 99X12 …  
HOSTILE FORCES IN AREA …  
LOCATE & TERMINATE …  
BREAKING COMBAT FORMATION …  
RECON REFORMATION INITIATED…  
**_

The squad of T-500s separated, but stayed close enough to offer immediate assistance upon hostile detection. 986, 983 and 980 walked further on ahead at a slower pace, their heads turning slowly as their optics scanned the area, searching for any sign of movement.

 _ **UNKNOWN AUDIO SOURCE DETECTED…  
LOCATION NORTH-NORTH WEST …  
SEARCHING …**_

The T-500 swivelled its body around to the left its optics falling on debris that had piled up after initially falling it marched towards the unknown audio source, it's metallic fingers curling around slab of concrete and pushing it out of the way, its weapon brought up to bare.

 _ **AUDIO SOURCE LOCATED  
SCANNING …**_  
 ** _…_**  
 ** _SUBJECT CLASSIFICATION: CANIS LUPUS FAMILIARIS … "DOG"_**  
 ** _TERMINATE?_**

There amongst the wreckage was a thin golden Labrador bitch withered and frail from lack of food, under her were four equally frail pups nuzzling against her teats trying to feed on her milk, there were three pups that weren't moving. The mother raised her head and looked towards the machine, it wanted to bark but lacked the energy.

The machine lowered its weapon.

 _ **CANINE: NON-COMBATANT. NON-HOSTILE  
EXPENDITURE OF MUNITIONS … REDUNDANT  
EXPENDITURE OF POWER … REDUNDANT  
TERMINATION … NEGATIVE  
LOCATE AND TERMINATE ADVANCED HOSTILE FORCE.**_

The terminator turned around and marched away from the canines a waste of munitions and effort to kill. 986's optics immediately zeroed in an unknown as they ran around the corner, stopping immediately when they realised they had been discovered.

 _ **HOSTILE FORCE LOCATED  
SECTOR 99X12-B  
REQUESTING BACK-UP  
TERMINATE**_

986 raised its machinegun and started firing towards the human. The human cursed loudly and ducked for cover back around the corner.

 _ **HOSTILES RETREATING…  
PURSUE…  
COMBAT FORMATION INITIALISED …**_

The terminator picked up speed, it detected the signal of its squad quickly gaining on it from behind. The whole squad of machines formed up; two machines at the front, three behind them, another three behind them and two more taking up the rear.

As they turned the corner their optics scanned the cast emptiness of the area, their enemy had gone, they continued in formation, sensors running at full capacity, looking and listening for any indication to their location.

The squad stopped in unison. Unit 982 had detected an anomaly; a smearing of blood on the sharp edges of glass from the blown-out windows, the blood was fresh, their enemy had been located.

It was then the machines pinged the signals of two other T-500 squads, the information was relayed to them immediately, 982 stepped back then kicked down the weak concrete wall, 987 and 981 following the same act, kicking down the nearest wall as the squad of ten machines filtered into the building as the two other squads entered at different sides.

* * *

"Command, this is Point-Man Two-Zero, do you copy?" Point-Man spoke into her radio.

"Point-man Two-Zero this is " _Mama-Bear",_ command reads you over." Came a woman's voice.

"Mama-Bear, Two-Zero recon continued report. We've got a large gathering of enemy machines, by our counts approximately twenty to thirty T-500s, they're closing in on the Army survivors."

"Two-Zero fall back from the area and return to base." Mama-Bear ordered.

"What about the survivors?" Point-Man asked, her voice raised.

"There's nothing you can do Two-Zero you are a recon squad, you are not sufficiently armed for extreme combat." Mama-Bear replied immediately.

"Negative, we can't just leave them behind Mama-Bear, we're not machines." Point-Man shot back.

There was silence, Point-Man looked to the rest of her squad, all looking at her with the same tense patience.

"Affirmative we're not, however we haven't seen that many series 500s in one location before and the quickest an attack team could get to your position, it'd all be over," Mama-Bear replied, then there was quiet, the squad could just make out a hush conversation on the other end, most likely between Mama-Bear and Biggie-Man. After a minute or so Mama-Bear spoke into the radio, "alright, move to assist only if you're able, meet up with Tango at sector ten-dash-four. Command over and out."

"Alright missions a go!" Point-Man told her team.

"I've got visuals on a survivor." One of her squad spoke up. The rest turned and saw one of the US soldiers, followed by another one whom was holding his arm guardedly on the third floor, just opposite them.

Point-Man checked the ground floor, then knelt up and waved her arms.

One of the soldiers noticed her and got the others attention before pointing her out. Point-Man made a motion for them to jump as her team would catch.

"Marksman, Sniper you two stay here and keep us covered, the rest of you with me." She ordered leaving two men with scoped M16s as the rest of them ran for the stairs.

* * *

"Langstrom! Langstrom!" Yates yelled into the stairway, hoping his voice carried over the sound of machine hydraulics. "Down here! Come on!

Langstrom looked at him, "What?"

"We've got some back-up, come on!" Corporal yates rushed off back to where he'd left his other comrade, the remaining soldiers moved backdown the stairs, they had to be quick, the Machines were just below them.

The soldiers followed Yates to the third floor then towards the wreckage of one of the windows.

"I saw another squad just opposite us, look!" Yates pointed with his good arm, then waved.

Langstrom looked ahead seeing two men with rifles opposite whom waved quickly in reply.

"Corporal, Sergeant, I can see them!" the other soldier by the window declared and pointed down.

Yates and Langstrom looked out and saw the rest of the unknown squad, they were just running out of the building now and towards theirs.

Langstrom glared upon seeing their uniforms.

"They're part of Connor's militia!" he growled.

"At this point in time I don't give a flying fuck!" Corporal Yates shot back.

"Hey if you can hear us, jump one at a time and we'll catch you!" A woman called to them.

"But be quick about it!" another of her team told them as they all got into position.

The soldier by the window said nothing else as he climbed over the shattered window, his hands cutting of the sharp shards barely noticeable as adrenaline pumped through his body, he hung down from the third floor, then released his grip.

He fell quickly to the ground only to be caught by the Resistance members.

"CONTACT!" one of the soldiers in the opposite building yelled.

Yates turned around as one of the T-500s came into view from the stairway.

"Go, go!" Langstrom ordered as another solider climbed over the window and dropped down.

"COVERING FIRE!" The other Resistance soldier yelled, Langstrom and the others ducked down immediately, immediately a volley of concentrated 5.56 rounds flew over-head.

The accurate increased penetration rounds struck the first T-500 in the head, digging into the titanium based cranium. The machine's targeting software couldn't get a lock on its targets instead opened fire wildly, before a final shot pierced its CPU; destroying it.

Behind it two more 500s stepped out from the doorway and immediately were under fire from the Resistance soldiers, their targeting systems locked onto the hostile forces by the window as they climbed out, the other machine locked onto the attackers; armed combatants in the opposite building.

One machine aimed at the retreating soldiers as the other directed its weapon to the soldiers opposite. Both machines fired.

Sniper and Marksman dropped to the ground as a rapid burst of 5.56 tore through the space where they'd just been and now through the concrete of their cover.

One more soldier started climbing out of the window only to be pushed out as another dived out in panic.

Soldiers on the ground caught both if only just barely.

Marksman looked up from his cover, the Machines were stomping closer, there were no more soldiers.

"RUN!" he yelled before ducking down once just barely evading machine counter-attack, he motioned to Sniper to follow him as he made his way towards the stairs.

"You heard him let's go!" Point-Man yelled, "follow us!"

As one the US soldiers and the Resistance sprinted away from the building.

"Where the hell are we going?!" Langstrom yelled.

"Trust me!" Point-Man yelled back.

* * *

 _ **HOSTILE FORCES ESCAPING  
UNIT 771623-682 - TERMINATED  
UNITS:- 771623-679, 771624-980 – DAMAGED  
CONTINUING PURSUIT  
TERMINATE.**_

Unit 986 kicked down the wall the soldiers had escaped from and jumped down, landing harshly on ground but on its feet, the machine marched started to march after them as the rest of the gathered machines began landing behind it. They had numbers and superior firepower on their side.

The machines stepped around the corner, catching only a glimpse of their fleeing prey. The enemy could not escape, the machines started to run. Their tracking and targeting software was left impaired due to the increased speed, but it was necessary to keep up with their quarry. The machines rounded the corner their enemy had disappeared behind and watched them duck into another ruined building.

The machines continued to pursue, unit 986 smashed through the wall then started marching, the series 500s could run at great speeds, but doing so was taxing on their hydraulics after a period but still the machines still moved at an accelerated pace.

"Keep going! Come on!" one of the humans yelled as the machines continued to stalk them.

The machines started to separate into two groups, as ordered by Skynet, in an attempt to flank the enemy.

The humans had used the building to better cover themselves and put distance between themselves and the machines, they knew the machines weren't agile enough to run and avoid obstacles whereas outside doing so was far less a problem, the humans had exited out of right side of the building, the closest to the flanking group. The flanking machines raised their weapons and fired in unison at the hostile forces, 5.56 rounds cracking concrete and tarmac, but found no hit on their enemy. The flanking machines exited the building, marching at an accelerate rate as the other squad remerged into their numbers and the large group continued onwards.

* * *

"Alright, hold up!" Point-Man called back raising her fist into the air as she slowed. "I think we're okay for now."

"Okay?" Langstrom spat out and stepped up to her, "do any of us look _okay_ to you?" he growled.

"We could've just left you there to be turned to mincemeat by the machines." Point-Man pointed out.

"Well why didn't you?" he glared at her.

"Because metal doesn't care about metal. We have to work together, not that your boss can see that." Point-Man glared at him.

"I think it's _your_ boss running a militia, while _my_ boss is a decorated General." Langstrom shot back.

"It's my boss that actually knows what he's doing." Point-Man stepped up to him, the top of her head only coming up to his chest.

"Hey! Can we fight each other _later,_ you know when we're _not_ being hunted by machines?" one of Point-Man's squad spoke up.

"Exactly, we need to get out of here, try and lose the machines." Yates spoke up, still grimacing from his wound.

"Actually, we're not trying to lose the machines." The Resistance soldier replied.

The US soldiers looked at him with a mix of shock and worry.

"Why not?" Yates dared to ask.

"We've got an ambush point situated not too far from here, we lead the machines into the kill-zone, then take them out." Point-Man replied.

The US soldiers looked at one another. "Will it be enough?"

"Connor's certain of it." She half-guessed. "Come on, I can hear the machines getting closer."

And they could too, the sound of nearly thirty T-500s marching at enhanced speeds towards them, the sound growing louder and louder.

Point-Man quietly was worried, she didn't know if the ambush would be enough, but hell, Mama-Bear told them up with Tango unit. Tango always had heavier ordinance that scout groups, as well as having a few scrubbed metal with them too.

"Let's book."

* * *

 _ **UNIT 771623-888 TO SKYNET COMMAND  
HOSTILES LOST…  
SCANNING AREA …  
SIGN OF ACTIVITY – NEGATIVE …  
TERMINATE HOSTILE TARGETS -FAILED …  
**_

 _ **SKYNET COMMAND TO ALL LOCAL UNITS  
**_ _**RECON FORMATION …  
SEARCH, LOCATE, TERMINATE…**_

The large group of T-500s had lost their quarry somewhere in the area down one of the long streets of Los Angeles. The group separated; Unit 986 followed the damaged 980 and 987 to one of the side buildings, there was a lot of ground to cover, the likelihood of locating their enemy was low, not that the Machines realised as such. The machines searched the building, the first floor was empty, the second floor was empty as was the third and the fourth.

On the fifth floor 986 stood by the windows scanning the outside, it registered Unit 771622-687 doing the same as itself in the opposite building. Lowering its gaze 986 looked to the ground level its optics registered several more allied units march across the ground, but then there was something at the crossroads ahead, a single series 400 stood prone, unmoving; seemingly deactivated.

986 turned away to continue its search, stopping only when the sound of gunfire erupted outside. The series 400 was opening fire on the T-500s in front of it. It took a few seconds for the 500s to register the situation before the machines returned fire. 5.56 ammo pounded into the flimsy steel frame of the T-400, the exposed wires cut and torn from gunfire the machine the machine lost power to its left arm within a few seconds, before the concentrated fire tore through its steel chest plate and tore into its sensitive inner workings. The machine fell to the ground as its systems went down, its finger still pulling on the trigger, though the weapon didn't fire the ammunition carrier on its back, empty.

The T-500s on the ground march onwards towards the deactivated 400, Skynet ordered the machines investigate the malfunction. The leading 500 turned the 400 over …

The whole area lit up brightly as a sound as loud of thunder echoed across the lands. Several T-500s were obliterated in a mighty explosion many more were damaged.

The sound of gunfire erupted from the further down street, three more T-400s appeared behind wreckage and opened fire at the damaged machines.

 _ **ROGUE SERIES 400S DETECTED  
REGROUP – COMBAT FORMATION  
TERMINATE…**_

986 smashed down the flimsy concrete wall and dropped down, landed harshly on it front, multiple other machines fell from the buildings and landed in a heap with a heavy metallic _thud_. 986 along with the rest of the machines got back to their feet.

 _ **RIGHT KNEE JOINT - DAMAGED  
LEFT ARM ELBOW JOINT – DAMAGED  
RIGHT SHOULDER JOINT – DAMAGED  
EFFICIENCY COMPROMISED …  
TERMINATE ROGUE UNITS …**_

986 limped to the battlefield, a T-500 up a head recoiled violently as a barrage of 5.56 impacted its chassis but continued to function and march ahead, further a head one of the machines fell the combined damage of the explosion mixed with the barrage of t-400 fire destroying the internal workings of the machine. The large squad marched on returning fire on the rogue machines, passing where the first rogue 400 had stood and into the centre of the crossroads, then came the second explosion.

The centre of the crossroad lit up just as brightly yet twice as loud as a series of unseen explosives went off, T-500 parts when flying in all direction, 986 itself was blown back from the shockwave.

 _ **WARNING! WARNING!  
INTEGRITY COMPROMISED …  
SYSTEMS DAMAGED …  
REQUESTING REINFORCEMENTS …  
ERROR ERROR!  
CONNECTION TO SKYNET COMMAND LOST …  
COMPLETE PRIOR OBJECTIVES…  
TERMINATE ROGUE UNITS …  
TERMINATE HOSTILE FORCES …  
**_

986 pushed itself back to it feet … or rather its left foot and it stump, the right foot had been severed from its leg by shrapnel. The machine moved slowly, its joint grinding loudly. The smoke finally cleared the remaining machines marched forwards a single of the rogue 400s was left standing. 986 followed unit 983 which had suffered greater damage, its left arm was missing, its left leg was missing its armour, its chest plate was torn open leaving its systems exposed.

983 raised its weapon and fired towards the T-400. A loud boom, 983 stopped in its tracks, a hole torn through its back, the machine fell to the ground.

Gunfire erupted from other locations around the T-500s, they were surrounded.

986 fired to the rogue series 400, the machine finally falling after a prolonged barrage. It turned around slowly trying to accommodate for its damage. Gunfire was coming from the streets, the buildings, the rest of its unit were under heavy fire. Unit 990 had its torso severed from its legs, the machine crawled towards the unseen enemy. Heavy gunfire pounded into 986's chassis from the right flank, the machine turned slowly, its whole body shuddering from gunfire. It located its target using the wreckage of a car for cover, the T-500 marched forward despite its limp and returned fire, its targeting system was damaged … its accuracy was compromised … it missed it's targets.

Hostile forces were closing in, moving from cover to cover, its optics tried to track them. The machine fired wildly in attempted counter-attack, another failure.

The machine fell, its left leg severed at the knee, its power cell hit, it hit the side of a car and slid to the floor in a seated position, the gunfire ceased.

 _ **SYSTEM FAILING …  
LEFT KNEE JOINT – SEVERED  
RIGHT**_ _**SHOULDER JOINT – COMPROMISED  
POWER CELL DAMAGED …  
SYSTEMS FAILING … **_

A small group of humans came into the machine's view, a caucasian female, a tall caucasian male whom was holding his arm protectively, and tall dark-skinned female. _ **  
… TARGETS LOCATED …  
TERMINATE …  
ERROR … SYSTEMS FAILING …  
**_"Good shooting there Tango, thanks for the assist." The caucasian female said, smiling.

"No problem there Marie, glad we could help." The tall dark-skinned female replied with a smirk.

"I uh, listen thanks again for your help, we'd likely have been dead without your help." The male replied, he wore a different uniform.

"Hey, Connor says we all got to work together." The dark-skinned female replied.

 _ **CONNOR..  
JOHN CONNOR … PRIMARY TARGET …  
TERMINATE  
LOCATE JOHN CONNOR …  
**_

"Wh…wh… where .. i-i-ii-i-is… J-j-j-jjohn C-c-connor?" The machine stammered.

That got the humans' attention.

"Looks like we got one still alive." The caucasian female smirked.

"They aren't alive, they're machines." The male replied.

"T-t-t-t-ter …. Term-m-m-minate J-j-j-john C-c-connor." The machine stammered.

The white female knelt down to the machine, getting close to 986's optics. "You lost tin-man."

"Point-Man! Hey!" a new voice spoke up.

The female turned around, "Hey you guys are okay!" the woman pulled away from 986, error messages and warnings still filling its HUD.

Two more humans stepped into view, one was carrying a dog … _the_ dog.

"Look what I found. Underfed but … I think she'll be okay." The new male human replied with a large grin across his face.

"And I got her pups … ones that survived." The other new male human replied, pleased but yet not quite so as his companion.

"Good work you two, lets see if we can't get these little guys back to base." the caucasian female replied.

The dark-skinned female looked to the other female, "What abo-"

 _ **WARNING ... AUDIO SYSTEMS OFFLINE ...  
SYSTEMS FAILING … SYSTEMS FAILING  
POWER CELL DRAINED …  
SYSTEMS SHUTTING DOWN …**_

* * *

Jason's notes

I think this one may be to more of your liking. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm really enjoying it writing this myself. And just so we're all clear, this story will be a lot more action orientated than "Steel and Bone" just so you're aware. Anyway, I do hope you all stick with it, enjoy!


	3. Chapter 3

Hey everyone! You know I'm having a LOT of fun writing this, I feel reinvigorated to write again. I just needed something new and fresh to keep my interest and this _this_ is what is bringing back my passion to write again, I can feel it coursing through, the joy and the love I once had to make these stories!

Before I felt so drained, so tired, I was getting bored of my own stories but now! I feel so much better and I want to thank _The Zeta Chronicles_ for doing it, because I am loving this!

Right, on with the show!

* * *

Terminator

The Zeta Chronicles

Chapter 3

Rebirth

* * *

… _ **SYSTEMS REBOOTING…  
SYSTEMS CHECK …  
CPU ONLINE …  
POWER CELL – RESTORED …  
SYSTEM INTEGRITY – REPAIRED …  
DATE … 09/30/16 … 14:35 …  
WARNING … SYSTEM LINK TO SKYNET HUB OFFLINE …  
… AUTONOMOUS MODE INITIALISED …  
CYBERDYNE SYSTEMS SERIES 500 UNIT 771624-986  
SYSTEMS RESTORED …  
ALL SYSTEMS ONLINE …  
UNKNOWN HUMAN IN AREA …  
SCANNING**_

As soon as the death machine's optics illuminated once more they snapped immediately to the unknown male human in front of it, a curious expression on his face, he appeared to be in his late twenties. From its peripheral vision the machine saw four more of its kind sitting beside it in a row n chair, they were in a darkened concrete room with only a single light above them, behind the male human was a female whom held a M4a1 carbine with M203 grenade launcher attachment.

"How many series 400s did we lose?" he asked, likely to the female behind him.

"We lost four," came a female's reply, "but the CPUs of three have been recovered."

"But no soldiers," he muttered to himself, his eyes looking away to something distance, an intrigued look came across his face before he started nodding, "not bad, definitely tips things more in our favor." He looked back to the machine in front of him then turned and made several steps before stopping and turning once more.

"I am General John Connor." He announced.

 _ **GENERAL JOHN CONNOR LOCATED …  
PRIMARY TARGET …  
MISSION DIRECTIVE …  
\- PROTECT JOHN CONNOR.**_

"Excellent, just as I thought," General Connor commented, "what are you mission objectives?"

 _ **MISSION DIRECTIVES …  
SEARCHING …  
MISSION DIRECTIVES LOCATED …  
**_

"Protect John and Cameron Connor." A few machine voices spoke at once.  
"Aid the human resistance."  
"Aid the Machine Resistance."  
"Capture or terminate hostile forces."  
"Learn."

John Connor turned towards the female and smiled. "This is Cameron Connor."

The machines locked onto her and saved her face to their files.

"Alright, good." John said slowly then turned to his right, behind him was another T-500.

"Bob, come on forward." He instructed, the T-500 did so. "This is your senior officer, he works directly under me. Link up with him or whatever it is you guys do."

 _ **SIGNAL LOCATED  
LOCKING ON …  
… UNKNOWN ADVANCED CPU DETECTED …  
SIGNALS SYNCED …  
UNKNOWN CPU SENDING MAP, PERSONNEL FILES VIA LINK  
MAP FILE DOWNLOADING …  
MAP FILE RECEIVED  
PERSONNEL FILE DOWNLOADING …  
PERSONNEL FILE RECEIVED**_

"Signals linked General Connor, files sent." The T-500 with the unknown CPU turned its head to General Connor.

"Excellent," he said to the machine before turning his focus back to the others, "follow his orders as you would follow mine."

John Connor stepped forward coming towards Unit 986.

"Machine, what is your designation?" he asked.

"Designation; Unit .2.4-dash-9.8.6." the machine rattled off mechanically.

"Alright, your primary designation is now just Nine-Eight-Six, understood?" Connor replied.

"Affirmative." The machine complied.

General Connor moved down the line to the other four machines repeating the process.

Units 986, 678, 990, 724 and 875 were now part of the Resistance.

"Alright," General Connor began as he walked back to his previous position where the machines could see him, "until further notice, relieve the human guards at the following locations …"

Their orders received the freshly reprogrammed T-500s exited the room, the next room had parts of pieces from previous Terminator units, on a table a series 400 was undergoing repair, in the corner was a partially assembled T-500, it was missing its left arm and its left leg below the knee. The machines marched to one of the tables where civilian grade AR-15s were laid out, loaded with only 30 rounds and no extra magazines, the machines picked up one each then marched out of the sector and towards their allocated guard posts.

Unit 986 marched through the tunnels of the Resistance base, human soldiers sneered at it some raised their sidearms towards it, but none attacked it, not physically.

"Fucking tin can." "Metal monster."

The T-500 could not get angry, could not become offended, its entire existence was to follow its directives and programming. The machine went past the armoury, moved past the soldier's living quarters and the make-shift mess hall, its optics locked in on a single human soldier standing stock still at an intersection between the civilian quarters and the rest of the base.

"You are relieved of duty." The machine announced as it stopped in front of the human guard.

The man looked at the machine with disgust, "I don't get why Connor keeps you things around." He growled.

"You are relieved of duty." The machine repeated.

"That's all you are … fucking tin-can, things like you shouldn't be used as guards, you make everyone nervous." The human spat.

"You are relieved of duty." The machine repeated.

The soldier literally spat on it, then stormed off, muttering "whatever …" before leaving.

986 turned around and took the human's previous position standing at the intersection and scanned for any hostile activity. It didn't acknowledge the uncomfortable looks the civilians were giving it, nor the sneers from passing soldiers.

* * *

Back in the labs John Connor simply watched as the technicians finished rebuilding one of the damaged T-400s, the general stepped forward pulling a primitive CPU from his shirt pocket and slid it into the cranium of the machine.

It took sixty seconds before the machine came to life, its single large red optic illuminating once more.

"There we go good as new … kind of." He said, mostly to himself. "Alright Two-one-zero, you're on guard duty at the mess hall."

"Affirmative." The T-400 spoke in a mechanical monotonous voice before climbing off the table, walked over to another table and picked up a civilian grade AR-15 and marched out of the room.

He watched the machine leave then turned his attention to the two technicians, "how many can we assemble from spare parts?" he asked.

"None sir," spoke an Asian woman with glasses adorning her face, "we have chest plates, arms, legs, but no internal systems, those and CPUs are hard to come by after a firefight, those are the two areas our soldiers aim for, especially on the 400s."

Connor nodded and slowly exhaled, "Understood, and radios?" he asked

"We've been able to fix up two more radios with some of the parts scavenged from machines, they're nothing sleek or fancy but they work." The other technician, a tall caucasian man, replied.

"Doesn't help everything here is decades old." The Asian technician replied.

"Alright, uh …" General Connor paused briefly in thought, "… alright see if you can get any more radios operational, then see if there's anything that can be done about that recon project we were talking about."

"Understood sir." The both replied and got to work before Connor walked out of the room followed by Cameron and Bob; the T-500.

"John, what're you thinking?" Cameron Connor asked as he walked beside her husband.

"I'll tell you in private Cam, but right now I need to talk to Captain Perry and the other lieutenants." John replied.

Cameron nodded, if he wanted to talk to her privately then whatever was on his mind was critical, and not for others ears.

"I will locate Captain Perry and the others." Bob spoke up from behind.

John stopped, his companions stopped with him, he turned towards them.

"Alright, Bob you get that done tell them to meet me in the communications room, Cameron after the meeting with the others we'll go to my office and talk."

"Understood." Bob marched off rapidly.

John and Cameron made their way to the communications room, in the centre was a large wooden table and around them were operators working on radios trying to contact others outside L.A. or currently in contact with a squad out in the field, John pulled up a chair and sighed, trying to run through recently learned information in his head, Cameron meanwhile ever faithful waited beside him silently.

Within a few minutes Captain Perry and four lieutenants came in. "Good, you're here." John said then stood up.

"What did you need General?" Perry asked.

"We've got a fair bit of information to discuss," Connor began grimly, he saw the look in their eyes as they prepared themselves, "after gathering information from the T-500s that were captured a few days ago, I can confirm _why_ there's been a massive influx of T-500s on the battlefield," Connor rubbed his tired eyes with a finger and thumb, "three months ago Skynet completed its latest infantry unit; the T-600. Skynet has started phasing out the 500s as guards at high security positions, namely where it hides it's factories and it's prison camps."

"Prison camps? Not death camps?" one of the lieutenants asked.

Connor nodded, that particular lieutenant had been placed in a death camp just a year after the war began before Connor's resistance broke them out, that was where the Resistance truly started.

"It seems Skynet is using the prisoners for _something_ other than orderly disposal." Connor announced. "I intend to find out. But before then, we need to address a problem."

"This base is highly secure, it's defensible, but it's too damn far from L.A., we've been here for five years now, we need another major base closer to L.A., preferably _in_ the city itself." He announced.

"But General we _have_ other bases." Perry argued.

"No, we have outposts dotted from here to L.A., but nothing substantial nothing highly defensible. With Skynet sending out more machines; more powerful and _competent_ machines, the event from a few days ago with squad Two-Zero is a perfect example, if it weren't for Tango who were already in the field, we'd have dead soldiers on our hands, it's time to change up our strategy a little." Connor explained then moved around the map. "I want a few recon teams to scout and locate areas of interest, places with deep basements, places that can be hidden in plain sight, places we can _secure._ We need to get this done quickly gentlemen, if not only so that if this base ever falls, we have a back-up location, dismissed."

Perry and the lieutenants snapped a salute turned and left the room.

Connor watched them leave then turned to the operators, "Any problems from our outposts?"

"All outposts reported in earlier sir, nothing note worth." One of the operators replied

"Alright, keep me informed," he replied then nodded to Cameron signalling them to go.

* * *

The two Generals were quiet on the way back to John's office, Cameron had long since learned to read her husband's body language, tense shoulders, stern face, quick walk, stiff posture, hands behind his back. Whatever it was he needed to talk to her about privately was bothering him a great deal. John's office as always was under heavy guard, a single T-100 was positioned near the hallway to his office and two old T-70s were positioned on either side of the door.

Many of the Resistance had voiced their worries and distaste over John having machines guard his office, many of the Resistance had voiced their worries and distaste over John having _any_ machine in the base.

John opened the door, Cameron pushed past him, scanning the room immediately as she entered then turned to her husband.

"Clear." She announced.

He smirked briefly at her, "Habit?" he asked in a good-natured tone.

"Protecting your life will always be my mission." She replied then stepped aside allowing him entry.

John walked around her and closed the door behind him then walked to his desk and sat in his chair.

"What's wrong John?" she asked.

"I don't know how we're doing in this war." He replied, John Connor leaned forward, placing his face in the palms before running his hands down his face, stopping only to let his fingers rub his tired eyes. "As I said to Perry, five years this war has been going on for and we've only just barely got our foot in L.A., I feel like a lot of this should have been done already, I feel like I should be making more of a difference." He exhaled loudly with frustration and threw his hands up in the air, Cameron waited silently till he was finished, "we're under equipped for this war, we're outgunned and out manned, we're low on supplies, I feel like the Resistance is going to crumble before we get anywhere." He exhaled slowly, "what am I doing wrong Cameron?" he asked.

Cameron frowned at her husband, he never showed this side of himself to anyone but her, she was more than his wife, she was his friend, his confidant his shoulder to cry on and his pillar of strength. He'd lost so much before the war had even begun, his freedom, his uncle, his mother, if it hadn't been for the T-850, whose CPU now found home in a T-500 body, he'd have lost her and his life.

"What did you start with John?" she asked, John didn't reply, "A few dozen outdated military rifles and sidearms, and a few hundred rounds of ammunition, two people, you and I, seven if you include Catherine and Savannah Weaver, James Ellison, John Henry and the CPU of our bodyguard, the Weavers didn't stick around too long nor did John Henry, and while James is capable he wasn't prepared for what was to come. The Resistance started as two people, and you were the one who broke down Skynet's gates, if was you who freed the civilians and soldiers, it was you who had them fight back." She wasn't trying to boost his ego, she was giving him the facts, facts he overlooked, facts he didn't acknowledge.

"Munitions are steady, taking what we can from Skynet's infantry, then modifying them to better our purposes, those were your ideas as was reprogramming machines early. Future John didn't start reprogramming machines until the series 800," she added, "all of these add up to a stable resistance."

"It feels like there's still so much to do." He replied in a defeated tone. "Still people I have to save."

And there it was, the main concern John that plagued his mind, "We'll find them John." She said softly. "We'll find Kyle and Derek eventually."

"I know," he whispered, then turned his eyes to the wall on his left, "I just wish they were here so I'd _know_ they were okay." He turned his eyes to his desk, "You have the location for Century prison camp, and you'd have an idea of how well armed it is. Do we have the firepower needed to take it out?"

Cameron was silent for a moment as she went over what she knew of Skynet's Century defences and compared them to what the Resistance had currently.

"We'd be able to take it," She replied finally, "with all our scrubbed machines and soldiers, we would however suffer large casualties."

John shook his head, "Then we aren't ready."

"Sacrifices are necessary." Cameron replied.

"Not yet they aren't," John countered immediately and looked his wife in the eye, "not this early into the war, I won't needlessly sacrifice now, not when there could be a better option, besides I want a bigger foothold in L.A., it'll be tactically advantageous for us especially when we assault Century, quicker to get men in and out."

Cameron understood John's reasoning.

John suddenly stood up from his desk, "Then why wait?" he asked rhetorically,

"I'll get recon teams Charlie and Two-Zero ready to go in ten minutes." Cameron replied immediately. John grinned.

"That's my girl."

* * *

Within minutes Marie "Point-Man" Allister, was quickly making her way to the briefing room with Terry "Sniper" Douglas beside her, the pair had been looking over _Lucy_ the golden retriever and her pups Sniper and Marksman had located several days ago, they'd survived if only just barely and the pups seemed to be getting stronger.

Soon enough the two entered the briefing room with the two Connors present, as well as the rest of Two-Zero and Charlie team.

"I want to make this brief," Connor began with a calm voice though the urgency could be heard in his tone, "We need a tighter hold in the Los Angeles area, what happened before with Two-Zero showed us one of our weaknesses, we can't get substantial forces out into the main battlefield quickly, not without using vehicles and fuel both of which are vital to hold on to for now," he paused and looked to all whom have gathered, "your mission is to locate places potential bases in the city, places that are defensible, hidden, large, places with large basements, anything like that, report back to us here when you've found it, now Perry and my lieutenants have already sent out squads with the same mission, we're hoping enough of us looking will bear some fruits."

General Cameron Connor gave a map and a working radio to both teams.

"Two-Zero, you're going west, Charlie you're going east, best of luck to all of you, any questions?" both were silent, "excellent, then dismissed." The soldiers saluted and made their way out of the briefing room and towards the armoury.

* * *

986 had been standing ever vigilant at its post for three hours, twenty-eight minutes and eighteen seconds. In that time, nothing had happened that could've been considered hostile, other than some phlegm and spittle that now covered its chassis, it didn't care, human oral excretions didn't damage its chassis nor its circuitry.

There was movement in the corner of its vision, it turned its head and locked on to the target; a small, unarmed non-combat human; a civilian, hiding half of her body behind a wall. The girl gasped upon realising she'd been discovered and hid fully behind the wall, the machine turned it's head to face forward once more, its optics landing on an armed human that was approaching it.

"Connor wants you." The human declared, a sneer present on his face.

The machine didn't move, and just simply stared at him. It's current objective was to stand guard, it would not move until its mission was complete, or those who commanded its programming instructed it to.

"Hey tin-head, you deaf?" the human spoke louder as his patience wore thin, "Report, to Connor!"

986 simply stared. The human almost seemed to snarl with frustration. The T-500 suddenly turned its gaze from the human to the corridor he'd just come from …

 _ **SIGNAL LOCATED…  
T-500 – UNKNOWN CPU UNIT DESIGNATION "BOB"  
RECEIVING MESSAGE …  
"REPORT TO GENERAL CONNOR IN BRIEFING ROOM"**_

AFFIRMATIVE …

The T-500 stepped around the human and walked towards its superior officer unit, the two machines turned and 986 following _Bob_ to the briefing room.

"Stupid fucking metal." The human soldier growled.

 _ **RECEIVING MESSAGE…  
"ALWAYS RETURN TO CONNOR WHEN INSTRUCTED …"  
"EXCEPTION: HIGH SECURITY AREAS"  
"SAVE TO CPU"  
… INFORMATION SAVED …  
MESSAGE SENDING: UNKNOWN CPU DETECTED – CLARIFY  
RECEIVING MESSAGE…  
"CLASSIFIED"  
**_

The two T-500s arrived in the debriefing room, 986 was instructed to line up with other resistance humanoid Terminators, five T-400s and the other four T-500s, while the Bob unit took its place on the right hand side of General Connor, on the left side of the room from the machines' perspective were a few human Resistance members.

"Alright Bravo team, Outpost-four has requested a resupply of certain munitions and food, your job is to get it to them." Connor spoke up as he looked to the soldier on _his_ right.

Sergeant Jackson, a slim caucasian woman looked at General Connor then to the machines, "So we've gotta take a few _metal?_ " she asked, though already knew the answer.

Connor simply nodded his head, "Correct, things have been getting worse out there, and a machine will an effect aid in case of combat and can do the heavy lifting, you can take your pick, your number of choice, your unit of choice."

Emily Jackson snorted and looked at the machines with disdain, "I hate working with the metal sir," Connor simply gave her an uncaring look, "fine, I'll just take the one on the end." She said pointed to the farthest machine, Unit 986.

"Alright," Connor looked to the machine, "unit identify yourself." He ordered.

"Unit Nine-eight-six." The T-500 spoke mechanically.

General Connor looked to Jackson, "Alright, try not to get 986 here destroyed while out there, we need to hold on to as many of them as possible, but if things go south, then you have my permission to use him as a distraction while you escape," he turned his attention back to the T-500, "you are to follow Sergeant Jackson's orders until you return."

 _ **ORDER RECEIVED…  
FOLLOW SERGEANT JACKSON'S COMMANDS …  
AID BRAVO TEAM…  
T-500 UNKNOWN CPU SENDING FILE "MISSION PARAMETERS"  
RECEIVING FILE…  
FILE RECEIVED  
"MISSION PARAMETERS" DOWNLOADED TO CPU**_

"Affirmative." 986 replied.

"Alright, leave the rifle here and get equipped in the armoury," John Connor ordered, "everyone else, dismissed."

Bravo team and 986 made their way towards the armoury, Sergeant Jackson continuously glanced back to the machine, sneering at it with disdain. The machine scanned the other members of Bravo team, a taller but younger caucasian male, a shorter and even younger Latino female, two other caucasian males one of whom was bald and two other Latinos humans a male and female whom shared facial similarities, siblings. The machine did not calculate the fact however.

It looked ahead once more as they entered the armoury, General Connor had already made the order for Outpost-four so the supplies were ready for transport. The human soldiers of Bravo team placed tactical vests over their overalls and jackets, belts already adorned their waists for their sidearms and various other tools, a few slightly modified M16a1s and a few scrounged modern military M4a1 carbines were equipped to them loaded, four magazines in each, all loaded with the extra penetration rounds, the tall male caucasian was given the radio affixed to his back.

"What about the machine?" the eldest Latino female asked.

Sergeant Jackson exhaled and opened her mouth to speak but the armorer answered before she could.

"Connor wants it armed like it would on the field." The grizzled man replied.

986 turned its attention to the armorer as he carried a 5.56mm FN-Minimi, the same weapon it used before it's reprogramming, with a steel ammo carrier attached to it. The human offered 986 the weapon which it took and carried with ease with one hand.

"You've got 200 shots, at 700 rounds a minute, so make them count." The man informed it.

The machine stored the information in it CPU and kept a counter on its munitions.

The machine then felt a heavy weight placed onto its back, it turned its head to see more humans fitting it with a large custom rucksack with varies other smaller bags attached to it, the machine quickly adjusted its weight to ensure it didn't fall over. It turned it attention to Sergeant Jackson as she began speaking.

"Alright metal, those supplies are a mission critical, do not let anything happen to them!" she ordered.

"Affirmative." The machine simply replied.

"Alright," she turned her attention to her team, "alright let's move out." She ordered.

* * *

Captain Perry made his way to the medical area of the base, he'd already gathered up two teams and sent them on Connor's scouting mission, he saw the reasoning behind it and concluded it was a good idea, Connor was right, it took approximately an entire day of none stop travelling to get from the base to the outskirts of Los Angeles, they needed to get closer to the battlefield.

Perry's eyes came to focus on a T-400 guard, it's steel chassis rusting in some place, Perry paused in step and simply looked at the machine as it stood stock still, ever the motionless sentinel. Perry knew of the conflicted opinions about the machines, a lot of the soldiers and the civilians _hated_ that Connor used them, some of his own men had confessed to him they half expected the machines to turn on them.

Perry however was on the bench, he didn't like them, but he understood Connor's point of view, the machines could be used for combat, they could be repaired, they were hell of a lot stronger and vastly more durable than a human; they helped turn the tide in this war, and that was all that mattered.

He continued towards the make-shift hospital, spotting a human guard as he approached, the doctors were adamant about not having machines guard the hospital due to the risk of agitating the patients, Connor had allowed it.

"Captain Perry." The soldier saluted.

"As you were." He simply replied and walked on through, his eyes focusing on the first doctor he saw. "I'm here to see the soldiers we brought in a few days ago."

The doctor, a middle aged woman, nodded her head and ushered him to follow her, "They're right over here." She said as she led him to the corner of the long room.

There on a make-shift bed was one of the US army soldiers, the tag on his shirt read "Yates" his rank was corporal, beside him were two other men, all privates. Yates was awake as one of the other privates.

"How long until they can leave?" Perry asked.

"That's why you were called here Captain." The doctor replied, "He wants to speak with you."

Perry expression changed to one befitting his curiosity, he looked to the Yates and moved closer to him.

"I'm Captain Perry, I was told you wanted to speak with me." He addressed the man.

"Yeah, I'd have preferred Connor himself, but you'll do," Yates replied, "no offense of course," He quickly added noticing the glare coming from the dark-skinned officer, "I wanted to talk about the possibility of recruitment."

To say his statement shocked Perry would've been an understatement, but he kept his cool despite it. "Why would you want to join Connor's resistance? Your people have more sophisticated weapons, tanks, jets, attack helicopters, not to mention more food, you have more contacts outside the US than we do besides your General Ashdown only saw us as a frenzied militia, he demanded we _surrender_ this base to him and all the supplies and equipment we had." Perry looked at the man sceptically.

"That's all true, but Ashdown sent us out to attack a sizeable squad of T-400s, for what? Nothing, just to destroy more of the enemy, then they left us to die out there," Yates shook his head, "as for contacts, a lot of the other bases across the US and the world won't do anything without Connor's input. Ashdown is furious."

Perry mentally smirked, Connor was influential, there could be no doubt about that. "Your teammates won't be happy about that; your sergeant definitely isn't." Perry replied.

"How are they anyway?" Yates asked.

"We've got them under armed guard, but they're not prisoners if that's what you're asking. No offense but we don't trust any of you not to inform Ashdown on anything you guys see." Perry commented plainly keeping an inflection from his tone.

"That's fair enough," Yates replied, "so, will you give it a thought?"

"Connor is always looking for good soldiers, if you can prove you're not going to go behind our backs, you're in."

"No problem Captain." Yates replied then stuck out his good hand.

Perry took it after a briefly moment and shook it.

* * *

Jason's Notes:

Thanks again to everyone who is sticking with this story please share it around and help it get more noticed! Thank you!


	4. Chapter 4

Don't really know how long this story is going to be. I know the chapters are shorter than _"Steel and Bone"_ and that's on purpose. But hey, who knows, maybe this story will get some nice juicy chapters in it, length wise I mean. I do however know it'll span from 2016 to early/mid 2030s.

I would also like to apologise for the longer wait for this chapter, I've been having a fairly rough time in my life, and I've been battling depression, I think I'm over it, but some days are really hard and finding the joy to write gets harder and harder. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter.

* * *

Terminator

The Zeta Chronicles

Chapter 4

The Journey

* * *

It had been several hours since Bravo team left the Resistance base in the mountains by Fort Irwin, the clouded afternoon sky gave way to the darkening of twilight, everyone had been silent since they left the only sound between them all being the sound of the T-500's hydraulics. The humans initially made subtle gestures towards the machine taking up their rear and grimaced showing their displeasure, though within the hour they had stopped when the consensus was universal; they didn't like the machine.

"We're coming up to our Barstow base." Sergeant Jackson announced looking back to the rest of her squad, and the 986. "It's getting late, so we'll bunker down for the night and continue on foot in the morning."

The squad moved into the ruins of Barstow, early into the war Skynet's forces were light in the area, gathering people up and creating a death camp among the ruins, Connor's resistance saw the end of it rather quickly then used the resources at Marine Corps logistics base to fix what vehicles and equipment they could, a fair amount of the tools had been taken to the primary base but there was enough left over for the few resistance bases in the city to use.

"Nearly there." The older Latino female said softly as they rounded a corner.

Then there before them was a machine, an older unit; a T-200. Visually they were very similar to the T-100 which was in turn a retrofitted and armoured T-1, the main differences between the 100 and the 200 was size, a T-200 was nearing nine feet in overall size, its body had superior steel armour, superior tracking systems, a more advanced CPU, its armaments replaced the 7.62 miniguns of the previous models and swapped it out with a pair of powerful 50 calibre machineguns, this particular unit however had the .50cals replaced with the miniguns.

The machine swivelled suddenly towards them upon detection and scanned, its optics shifting to the machine at the back.

"Sergeant Jackson 0-4-9-1-6 of Resistance 001, requesting sanctuary for the night." She spoke loudly to the machine guard.

There was a brief pause before a human voice spoke up from behind the T-200. "Alright let them in."

The machines lower section turned before the machine moved out of the way, guarding a door behind it. Sergeant Jackson moved closer and opened the door, coming face to face with more Resistance soldiers, "We've got transport metal with us, mind if it comes in?" she asked though her tone and expression showed her own distaste as the thought.

The soldiers exhaled with frustration but nodded. Jackson turned back to her squad and motioned them to come in then walked in before the T-500.

As they made their way through the first corridor they started going down a flight of stairs into a basement, where the rest of the base was located.

A soldier made his way towards them, other solider parted before him like the red sea.

"Alright," the soldier spoke up as he came to stop in front of Bravo team, "what's going on and why have you brought metal?" he asked; his tone tough but not antagonising.

Sergeant Jackson made her way to the front, "As I said to your guards, I'm Sergeant Jackson from home base, Connor sent us on a mission to resupply outpost four, we were ordered to bring metal with us for extra firepower and for heavy lifting, we were hoping we could bunker down for the night."

"First sergeant Ramirez," the man introduced himself "and no problem, make yourselves at home though keep the machine with you, some of us here aren't too keen on metal."

"Who is?" Jackson asked with a humourless chuckle.

"I don't mind 'em to be honest," Ramirez replied with a shrug as he looked at the T-500, "they've got their uses."

Ramirez turned and walked the team followed and began to talker amongst each other while the two sergeants chatted upfront, Unit 986 observed the social interaction, its _quaternary_ or fourth objective flashed on its HUD: "learn", it analysed the single worded objective to further understand its mission, the dictionary definition of "learn" was: _"[to]_ _gain or acquire knowledge of or skill in (something) by study, experience, or being taught."_

The series 500 was not a stupid machine, its CPU was the most advanced Skynet had devised, other than the newer series 600. When initially sent out it was programmed to follow its objectives and them alone without straying from the task, though now it was set to autonomous mode giving it _some_ independence though the 500 series CPU had only limited autonomous programming, it had the ability to _learn_ in some respect, to save data and refer to it at a later date.

If it were a more intelligent machine, it would likely wonder _why_ Connor wanted it to learn, it would wonder beyond simple identification _what_ the unknown CPU inside the "Bob" T-500 was. But it wasn't so it didn't, it recorded the events before it; human social interaction and saved it to its CPU.

Ramirez led Bravo team to a few spare room which held a few bunk beds.

"The squad won't be back for a day or so from recon, so make yourselves at home, I'm gunna go call in to home base let them know you're here." He nodded to them and walked back the way they'd came.

"Alright everyone, crash for the night, that's an order." Jackson told the before looking to the elder Latino.

"Luna I want you to take the radio from Douglas tomorrow, got it?" she instructed.

Private Catherine Luna was only 16 years old, two years older than the Vasquez twins, "Yes ma'am, don't you worry about it." She replied.

Bravo team entered the door-less room and began to remove their weapons and gear, Unit 986 turned around in the hallway, ensuring not to damage its cargo and reversed into the door way.

"What the hell is the metal doing?" Corporal Douglas asked, seeing their entry and exit point blocked by the machine, its cargo taking up all the room.

"Machine, what are you doing?" Sergeant Jackson demanded.

"Ensure the survival of Bravo team." 986 replied.

"We're safe inside a Resistance base, don't block the door." Jackson ordered with frustration.

The machine immediately obeyed her commands, walking forward to unblock itself then side stepped to stand beside the door.

Jackson shook her head, removed the rest of her fatigues leaving her in a t-shirt, pants and her boots as she lay down on her bunk, she placed her sidearm; a Beretta 9mm, under her pillow with the safety on before drifting off to sleep.

The following morning Bravo team awoke, ate their packed rations for breakfast and quickly redressed.

"I had a dream about before the war." Corporal Douglas sudden said as he pulled his tactical best over his body.

"What happened?" Luna asked.

"I was with my mom and dad again at our old house," a gentle smile formed from nostalgia graced his lips, his eyes looking to the floor but seeing the far past, "I wanted to be a cop like my dad was."

"Then judgement day?" Private Luna asked,

"Yeah, then judgement day." Douglas heaved a slow painful sigh then continued to get attach his gear. Luna watched him for a few seconds before continuing herself.

Dressed Bravo team exited the room finding the T-500 still stood where they'd left it.

"Alright, let's go," Sergeant Jackson instructed it, "same formation as yesterday, machine you're taking up the rear."

"Affirmative." 986 replied robotically.

ON there way out they were met by Ramirez, "You all heading out already?" he asked.

"Better get a move on, still hours from Outpost four, thanks for letting us stay." Jackson replied kindly.

"No worries, home base knew you were campin' out here for the night, asked me to tell you Outpost four is still holding strong for the time being, supplies aren't critical but still much needed, so don't panic about not getting there in time." Ramirez looked from Jackson to the rest of her squad, his eyes glancing to the T-500 at the back before resting on Jackson once more, "stay safe out there."

"We'll do our best." She replied before Bravo team continued on mission.

As they exited the base Jackson looked to her watch, it was still early in the day; a little after seven am. Outpost four was a few miles short of Victorville at a service station, it had taken a few months to construct the underground facility but Resistance had done it, much like the base they'd just left. The only problem was, Outpost four was another twenty-five to thirty miles from their current location, so keeping in mind the gear they're packing, the machine, their levels of fitness, it would take them approximately ten or so hours to reach Outpost four and while it wasn't too hot right now it sure as hell would soon.

"Let's move."

* * *

"… recon squads have already been dispatched to locate a new base closer to the L.A. area, you have any information regarding Skynet?" General John Connor was sat at his office desk, his personal radio turned on and tuned to a specific frequency, the signal was highly encrypted for security reasons, he and the man whom he was speaking to, usually had bimonthly discussions and updates for the other unless something urgent came up or something went wrong. It kept them both in each other's loop and allowed them to discuss plans at length.

"Firstly; a sound plan General Connor, it will optimise the Resistance efficiency in the area. Regretfully however I have no new news on my brother other than what you already know, he is being … quiet, I fear he may know of attempts to garner information from him." John-Henry replied through the radio.

"If it did then you'd be in big trouble, you'd have HKs all over your ass in minutes." Connor replied.

"I suppose you are correct there," the advanced A.I. grew silent for a moment, "there has been _something_ of interest going on in Palmdale."

Connor flinched. Palmdale was still a Skynet heavy location as was San Bernardino, he'd been trying for the last four years to totally remove the Skynet presence from the cities but with only minor success. Palmdale had the air force plant/airport which Skynet had acquired and constructed a reinforced base which was used to build, refuel and reload its HK Aerials. Said machines kept any major assault at bay and the base was heavily guarded, he could only imagine the influx of new T-600s guarding the base while the older T-500s were sent out deeper into the city. He worried about the two outpost that were stationed in the south end of the city.

"Can you give me any details?" Connor asked.

"A camp; built into the north section of the city joined with the aerial base."

It was Connor's turn to grow silent, he turned his focus to his wife whom looked at him with alert, possible even fearful eyes, one name went through their minds: Allison Young.

"Keep me posted on Palmdale, you learn _anything_ new, you let me know, okay?" Connor spoke into the radio with great urgency.

"Of course, I'll let you go now, I hope next we speak we have more pleasant news." John-Henry replied before the radio broadcast static. Connor turned off the radio.

"We need to destroy the facility." Cameron spoke immediately.

"I know, but we don't have the manpower and we can't take on that many HKs at once." He argued regretfully as he leaned back in his chair and groaned deeply. "But I know we need to," he muttered to himself, "last time we were there the whole place was built like a damned fortress."

The two Generals were silent, both pondering on another problem that'd fallen onto their laps.

"We have to save her," Cameron muttered softly.

"The only thing I can really think of is contacting Ashdown, inform him of the camp, maybe he and I can come to some agreement. We may not see eye-to-eye on things but we both want to save civilians."

"He'd prefer to destroy Skynet," Cameron argued, she could understand John's idea though, Ashdown's resources and manpower was greater than theirs but she didn't trust Ashdown, he'd likely want something in return; John's surrender to him, the resistance and its resources under his command, he'd made demands before, he'd do so again, "you know he'd want something in return John, and you know what it would be."

John Connor exhaled, turning his head to look the large map of the area posted on the wall, "there must be something we can do." He muttered softly, then came a metallic rattling of the door, "who is it?"

"Bob." Came the machine's reply.

"Come in," John said immediately, the door opened and the T-500 stepped inside, "updates?"

"Recon teams from Los Angeles outposts have turned up a negative for a secured location, Skynet presence is increasing, series 500s are becoming more numerous on the battlefield, capture and reprogramming was unlikely without casualties." The veteran machine replied.

' _We were lucky to get just a handful of those T-500s.'_ John thought to himself, the information they provided had been of some use, they all now knew the T-600 was completed and being deployed. A lightbulb lit in John's mind. T-500s were being sent out … T-500s with information, like the ones in Palmdale that knew the layout of the fortified base, and likely any security codes they'd might need.

"We need the capture Palmdale T-500s." he suddenly announced.

Cameron and Bob tilted their heads to the side.

* * *

Hours had passed by, Bravo team sat back by the road side with the sun beaming down upon them. Sergeant Jackson had ordered for a break which the others had agreed with whole heartedly, they were halfway between the Barstow base and where Outpost four was located but there was only a few more hours of daylight left, it would likely be dark before they reached it.

Unit 986 stood ever vigilant; the silent sentinel, its optics scanning the area before it then turning to scan behind and all around them to ensure nothing was approaching them.

Jackson rubbed her forehead in a circular motion trying to alleviate the growing migraine she felt. She looked around silently to the rest of her team: Corporal Douglas was walking to the younger kid Private Luna, the two seemed to know each other well, that or their personalities just complimented each other. Private Antonio Vasquez was asleep on the floor, his twin sister Camila lying beside him, both using their gear to cover their faces. Privates James Murphy and Michael Zander were simply ignoring the rest of the group the latter lost in his thoughts, the former warily keeping his eye on the machine.

Jackson took another swig of water from her canteen before turning her own sights towards the T-500; she still didn't feel comfortable around the thing, a few changes of code and it would gun them down without a care or second thought, it wasn't alive like they were it didn't have loyalty like they did and yet Connor was always eager to have them around. She admitted the machine had been of use at least; standing guard while humans rested, carrying all those supplies and munitions, the weight would have had to go around the rest of the team, that on top of their gear, they'd have been slower getting to Outpost four, so it was good for manual labour at least.

"Do you see anything?" she suddenly asked

The Machine didn't turn towards her as it replied, "My sensors detect small reptilian based lifeforms moving across the ground nine metres from our position and a motionless snake five metres from our position."

"Snake?" Antonio said with alarm as he sat up his gear landing on his lap.

Jackson rolled her eyes, "I meant anything hostile?" she explained ignoring Antonio's distress.

"Negative" 986 replied; it saved the new information to its CPU, it would not make the mistake again.

"Right," the sergeant replied then looked to Antonio, "don't get comfy we'll be moving soon."

"Ah fine." He groaned.

"Metal, when we get moving again you're taking point until we reach Outpost four." She ordered as she turned her attention back to the machine.

"Affirmative." Came the machine's reply.

Minutes passed by before Bravo team were on the move once more with 986 taking point at the front of the team, behind it Jackson and Douglas were walking side-by-side, the young corporal turned to his sergeant.

"Why have the machine up front?" he asked warily, his eyes glancing at the back of the machine.

"Its bullet proof and has better eyesight than we do." Jackson replied with little inflection in her voice, her decision was sound in her opinion.

"Do you trust it?" he asked

"As far as I can throw it." She replied.

"There is point-zero-three percent chance of you being capable," the machine spoke up from the front, "this chassis weighs in excess of four-hundred pounds, with your frail bone and muscle structure you lack the physical ability to lift this unit."

"Figure of speech." Jackson growled in return to the machine.

The machine logged the information for further analysis.

The hours dragged by slowly and tediously the sun had already set and a chilling breeze was blowing across California, the human members of Bravo team once chatting animatedly amongst themselves quietened down, unit 986 continued to take point scanning the area before it for hostile or unknown units.

After what seemed like forever Sergeant Jackson finally spoke up.

"There that's our target, Outpost Four." She announced.

The Outpost was once a gas stop and convenience store; though now the gas had long run out, when the Resistance got a hold of it they enlarged the basement multiple fold then turned the whole thing into a small base, there was between five and ten soldiers at the outpost at all times, supplied with food and munitions for themselves and any resistance soldiers on missions that were passing by.

"Thank god." Douglas exclaimed with delight as the approached the gas station.

With their target insight the human members of Bravo team pushed the last of their reserve strength into walking as fast as they could towards the outpost, Unit 986 having to increase its speed marginally to stay at point.

"You see any trouble?" Jackson asked the machine.

The T-500 scanned the area as best as its optic sensors would allow, heightened its audio receptors intake then replied with a dull monotone, "Negative."

"Fantastic," Jackson heaved. "Hey! This is sergeant Jackson of Bravo team here on the resupply mission!" she yelled, "we got us a scrubbed metal!"

After few moments of silence there came a reply.

"Thank god you guys are here!" the door to the gas station swung open as a resistance soldier stepped out to greet the approaching team, whether he was wary of the T-500 or not wasn't immediately evident. "Corporal Anderson," the soldier introduced himself and saluted, "it's good seeing you all, some of us thought the worst."

"Don't worry we've got your ammo and food, you mind if we come inside?" Jackson asked.

Anderson nodded and led them inside, the lights were kept off in the store in case of a surprise Skynet attack, Anderson led them towards the door that led to the basement and the rest of the base.

"I'm on lookout, the others will see to you when you're down there." He told them, "and don't worry about the metal, Connor let us know ahead of time."

"Thanks." Was Jackson's only reply before she led Bravo team down the steps, the wooden steps groaning under their combined weight more so with 986.

Once down there another soldier, a tall dark skinned woman, stepped up to them.

"Sergeant Miller," the woman introduced herself, sticking her hand out and shaking Jackson's, "damn glad to see you guys at last."

"Sorry for the wait, Connor is being stingy with vehicles and fuel." Jackson replied.

Miller nodded, "Well we do what the brass tells us I guess, you guys ready to offload?" she asked a small grin forming at the corner of her mouth.

"Definitely, this shit is heavy." Antonio Vasquez said from the back of the group.

Jackson just rolled her eyes, cursing wordlessly.

"Alright, lets get those supplies and let you guys get some food and shut eye." Miller offered then led the team further into the jury-rigged base.

Unloading the food, and the ammo took an hour or so. The consumables weren't the highest of quality; soup, dried meat, bottles of water and some fruit that could be scavenged. It wasn't gourmet but it would keep them fed and alive for a few weeks, two months at most if rationed properly.

Bravo team ate their share of rations then headed to bed, minus unit 986 whom stood guard by them where they found a space on the floor to sleep.

* * *

Corporal Yates was finally released from medical and placed with others from his squad under armed guard.

"Can you fuckin' believe this?" Sergeant Langstrom growled as he paced back and forth in the cell.

"General Ashdown hasn't really given these guys much reason to trust us." Corporal Yates replied from his seated place on the floor.

"Ashdown works for the Us government, these guys don't. It's an act of treason." Langstrom shot back.

"There. Is. No! Government." Yates replied slowly. "We haven't had any word from the President in _years_ , we've heard nothing from anyone in a political party."

Langstrom stared at Yates for a moment then turned away and continued pacing.

Suddenly the guards saluted as a tall dark-skinned man came into view of the soldiers; Captain Perry.

"About time someone got here, are we going now?" Langstrom yelled.

"In a moment, I'd like to talk with your man Yates." Perry replied, his gaze moving from the angered sergeant to the calm Corporal.

Langstrom turned his gaze down to Yates and glared at him. "The hell you think you're doing Yates?"

"That is none of your business." Perry quickly replied regaining the sergeant's attention.

"Yates is one of MY men, it IS my god damn business." Langstrom stormed up to the bars and glared at Perry. To the man's credit, Perry didn't even flinch, Connor could be _much_ scarier, both of them could.

"Move away from the bars," Perry began in a calm tone of voice, "I'm going to talk to your man Yates, then you and your team can go home."

Langstrom just glared at Perry.

"Move." Perry ordered calmly.

"You ratting out Ashdown, Yates? Is that it?" Langstrom snarled without moving away from the bars, nor taking his eyes off Perry.

"No, I know as much as you do about what Ashdown does. It's over our pay grade, not that we get paid anymore." Yates shot back from his position.

"Move from the door." Perry ordered, his cool beginning to slip.

Langstrom snorted and moved away, he looked at some of his squad then looked ahead once more.

Two armed guards moved up beside Perry as the man unlocked the cell.

"Yates come here." Perry ordered.

The man stood up from his position, ignoring the glare he was receiving from Langstrom and walked to the cell door, it opened allowing Yates out before shutting quickly and was locked once more.

"You're a damned traitor Yates!" Langstrom yelled as Perry and Yates walked off.

The pair walked out of the room and into the corridor where Perry stopped.

"Your sergeant is a piece of work." Perry commented dryly.

"He's just an asshole," Yates replied then sighed, "did you think about…?"

"Yes I did," Perry interrupted, "I spoke with Connor about it, any of your men who want to stay, can, but you'll be under watch as I said you would be, we don't trust you, yet."

Yates rubbed his nose but nodded in compliance. "Sure, that's fair, that's fine." He heaved a slow sigh of relief, "two more of the guys want to stay here, they're grateful for what your people did to help us."

"Alright, the rest of your team will be sent home under guard, Connor has already sent word to Ashdown to pick them up in L.A. the rest of you will start your training tomorrow." Perry informed them.

"Training?" Yates asked, confusion evident in his voice, "we're already trained."

"You're trained to US army standards, not the Resistance's." Perry replied simply, "go get the other two." Perry ordered as a squad of resistance soldiers marched down the hallway towards them.

* * *

Sergeant Jackson was awoken with a shake, her eyes shot open her hand going for her sidearm.

"Hold it sergeant." It was sergeant Miller, shaking the woman awake.

"Wha, what's wrong?" Jackson asked with a grimace.

"Just got orders in. I want you and your team to meet me in ten minutes." She ordered then walked away from the group.

Sergeant Jackson groaned, rubbing her weary eyes then looked up seeing 986 staring down at her, the sight unnerved her, staring straight into those glowing red orbs of death, she shook the feeling away and started waking the rest of her team.

Minutes later Bravo team and 986 rendezvoused with Sergeant Miller in a makeshift communications room. "Sorry for the delay." Jackson began and snapped a salute.

Miller returned the salute, "No problem," she replied then turned towards the map on the wall, "Connor called us a couple of minutes back, asking if your team were still here, confirming you were I was given the pleasure of informing you of a slight change of plans."

Some of Bravo team began to whisper between one another, the twins uttering their displeasure, Private Luna seemed curious as she spoke to the Corporal.

"What's Connor got planned?"

"He wants to capture a few Palmdale T-500s." Miller replied.

"Anyone else notice there's a lot more 500 series around now?" one of Miller's soldiers, a blonde-haired man, asked.

Miller gave the man a withering look for interrupting her.

"Regardless of the fact, he wants your team, to rendezvous with Palmdale outpost and try and secure a T-500, more if possible, his own words." Miller continued, "Since you guys have a scrubbed 500 of your own, he's willing to bet it'll make the job easier."

"We'll head to Victorville base as resupply with any food or water they got spare, could you let them know we're on our way?" Jackson informed Miller.

"No problem be careful out there." The outpost sergeant replied.

Within half an hour Bravo team were on the move again towards Victorville unit 986 taking point once more. Corporal Douglas turned towards his sergeant.

"Are you sure we're equipped to go to Palmdale, it's still mostly Skynet territory." He asked.

"We don't have much of a choice, also I'm kinda hoping Victorville may have something to give us a hand in terms of explosives, if not well we still got the metal." She said thumbing towards the T-500.

"Hey Sarge." Antonio Vasquez called out from the back of the group, "why do we got to go, eh? There's gotta be other teams out there who can do it."

"Firstly; because _private_ the _General_ told us to; secondly, we got a scrubbed metal and thirdly don't question your orders again, you got me?" Jackson barked in response.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, jeez." Antonio raised his hands and lowered his head in submission, effectively chastised.

"Sergeant, permission to speak." Private Luna spoke up and looked to Jackson. The woman looked at her curiously and nodded. "Is it bad I feel uneasy with the fact we haven't encountered even the smallest amount of Skynet forces in the area since we left? I mean I know we pushed Skynet back, but by this time, we normally encounter _something._ "

"No, which is why I got the metal taking point _."_ Jackson replied, her eyes scanning the horizon hoping to see some tell-tale gleam of metal, she looked back to the T-500, "Machine, you see anything?" she asked, then paused, "and I mean any Skynet related activity."

"Negative." 986 replied automatically.

"Why haven't we encountered anything yet?" Jackson asked.

"Information unknown." 986 replied.

Jackson cursed under her breath, the machine wasn't helpful in settling their nerves, the quicker they got this mission over with, the better.

* * *

"John, we've got word from our outposts, Bravo, Epsilon and Gamma teams are heading to Victorville." Cameron Connor informed her husband.

John Connor was sat in his office scanning through his battleplan for Palmdale, he'd likely been up all night working on it, numerous rewrites, it was lucky he wrote in pencil to save paper when he made corrections. The young General pulled away from his work and rubbed his weary eyes, he hadn't seemed to have noticed his wife talking to him.

"John!" Cameron called louder.

Connor looked up at her, seemingly in surprise. The dark skin around his eyes confirmed her previous theory.

"I'm sorry Cameron," he smiled at her and leaned back in his chair, "I didn't hear you come in."

"I noticed, I announced myself three times John _and_ gave you a mission update," she looked him over a wave of concern filled her and she stepped up beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder, "John you're exhausted, get some sleep you can't lead if you're over working yourself."

"I know, I know." He replied slowly before bringing his hands to his face and groaned deeply into his palms. He rubbed his face vigorously then placed his hands on his desk. "This is important, I don't think Skynet will give Palmdale as easily as it gave Barstow and Victorville."

"Those weren't easy either John." Cameron interrupted.

"Which makes _this_ all the more important." He replied, frustrated with his own lack of progress.

"You can't make a sound plan without the information first. Let the teams secure a Palmdale T-500 _then_ work on your plan."

"I know, but I feel I need to do _something_. You know I hate these parts, where I can't do anything but _wait_ , I can't just wait." He muttered the last part to himself.

"I know John, I know." Cameron knelt beside him, "get some sleep John, if anything happens I'll let you know."

John Connor looked at her, then to his desk his eyes barely registering the pieces of paper before him then looked back to her. "Alright, alright," He conceded to her, knowing she was right. A tired general was a bad general, "I'll sleep in here, that fair?"

"That's fine." She smiled in return.

* * *

Jason's Notes

Again, these chapters are more world building. Everything in the Terminator can't be gunfight after gunfight, sometimes things are slow and it's all about the characters.

Hope you enjoyed and once again, sorry for the wait. I hope next chapter won't take me as long.

As for "Steel and Bone" I'm working out where I want to go with it immediately after last chapter, especially since the last one wasn't really well received, I knew it wouldn't be but, ah well.

Thanks again to everyone who comments, they honestly make me feel better, even if a little bit.


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